On No-Fault Liability

NO-fault liability is the product of the social progress and the rapid development of modern science and technology. After 100 years of development, it has been an important form of liability in tort law which recognized by the legislation of majority country. Compared with other forms of liability, such as strict liability, absolute liability, there are some similarities, but there are also some subtle but important differences. It is the differences that tell us the basic characteristics of no-fault liability. No-fault liability is a form of legal liability that the actor must answer for the damage, if there is the causality between the act and damage, which is required by positive law, and whether the actor has subjective fault. In this responsibility, the causality is the most important element that judge who is responsible for the damage. In some special cases that no-fault liability should be applied, the causality is too difficult to estimate, so we should introduce the presumption of causality. In the theoretical foundations of no-fault liability, the scholars put forward a variety of theories, but relatively the theory of risk is the best one in explaining rules of no-fault liability.At present, there are three kinds of representative legislation modes of no-fault liability, namely Anglo-American model, German model and the French model. They have some advantages that are worthy of reference. In modern China, the legislation of no-fault liability is not perfect. The existent problems led to the errors of the application of no-fault liability in judicial practice. This situation does not match the development trend of tort law. In this situation, theoretical and practical value of consummating the legislation of no-fault liability is great. In order to consummate the legislation, the author takes the status quo of the legislative and judicial status as the starting point, focus on the damage of high-risk operations, the damage caused by animals and the damage caused by environmental pollution, combine the conclusion of comparative study, and put forward some legal suggestions on improving the present no-fault liability.